October Summit
Masterminds
October 29
Aravind Centre for Eye Care innovations organised a symposium titled, Masterminds – Innovations for a purpose, as part of October Summit. The programme was hosted by Aravind-Pondicherry. The core theme of this symposium was to promote and disseminate the culture of innovation to enhance patient-centred care in eye care delivery. A total of 274 people registered for the symposium and 49 took part. Apart from the guest speakers, Dr.Fathima, Aravind-Tirunelveli; Dr.Sathya Ravilla, Aravind-Tirupati; Dr.Karthik Srinivasan, Aravind-Chennai; Dr.Ashwin, Aravind-Kovilpatti; Dr. Pranesh Balasubramaiyam, Aravind-Coimbatore and Dr. Rajesh, Aravind-pondicherry spoke on Role of incremental innovations.
Webinar: Reaching the unreached in the new normal – LEAP “Community Referral System”
LAICO launched a collaborative learning series to help hospitals strengthen their community referral system (CRS), in December 2020. 15 hospitals from India, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Kenya came together, identified 7 strategies that can be tested in their set up to strengthen the community engagement and to create access to eye care. These Strategies were classified into two major domains i.e. directly working with the community and working with the existing patients. Each hospital selected two to three ideas that are practically feasible to implement. In all these activities, LAICO and Aravind were co-learners. During this collaborative period, the CRS ideas contributed 22% to the total Cataract surgical volume in these 15 participating hospitals. In order to share the outcomes and rich learnings gained out of this process, a 2-hour webinar was conducted on October 21.The webinar started with an opening talk by Mr R.D Thulasiraj, Executive Director, LAICO followed by the speakers sharing their experiences. There were 72 participants in addition to the panellists.
Second Batch of LEAP VC Collaborative
LAICO, October 25-28
LAICO launched the second batch of LEAP Collaborative on Establishing and Strengthening Vision Centres. The Collaborative will run from October 2021 to September 2022. A total of 17 hospital teams from Bangladesh, India, Kenya, and Nigeria have enrolled in the programme. The year-long virtual program will guide the hospital teams in setting up new vision centres and strengthening the processes in existing vision centres. The first learning session of the collaborative was held from October 25 to 28, 2021.
Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness Survey in Collaboration with the Govt. of Tamil Nadu
LAICO, October 9
LAICO has been assisting the Government of Tamil Nadu to design and conduct a Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness (RAAB) for the state. As part of this, one day training was organised on 9th October 2021 for the District Programme Officers and government Ophthalmic Assistants on the design and methodology of the RAAB survey. A total of 147 people took part. Prof B R Shamanna, Professor of Community Medicine, University of Hyderabad and certified RAAB trainer from International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH), London anchored the training.
